Chiss
Overview This race of blue-skinned humanoids was from the planet Csilla, in the Unknown Regions. Their homeworld was locked in a planet-wide ice age many millennia ago, and they were forced to flee the planet as a species in order to survive. They are all well-muscled and tall, with jet black hair and glowing red eyes. While their history has been marked by nearly continual warfare and conquest of other worlds, the Chiss are generally not violent. They prefer to extend themselves only from a defensive posture, and viewed the idea of a pre-emptive strike against an enemy as if it were murder. Within Chiss society, children matured very quickly, never truly having an adolescent period before becoming adults. The Chiss and baseline Humans regarded each other as aliens, but genetic studies have indicated that the two peoples were close biological cousins, and it is not clear whether the differences between them were the product of straightforward evolutionary divergence and differing planetary habitats, or the result of genetic engineering similar to that which produced such hybrid species as the Massassi, and the Myke. Outwardly, the Chiss were distinguished from baseline Humans by three clearly visible traits—blue skin, midnight-black hair, and glowing red eyes; but their blood was red, and a case can be made that all these superficial features were the result of external factors in the biosphere of the ice-locked planet Csilla, said to be their homeworld, or at least, the political, cultural and military center of their civilization. Beyond these potentially superficial differences, it is not clear how far the Chiss diverged from human norms. Although both Chiss and Humans speculated about distinct physiological differences, for instance in the vocal apparatus or skeletal structure, there is no really firm proof of stark evolutionary differences. It does seem that the Chiss possessed a faster-than-average metabolic rate, leading to a distinctively lean physique, and they were considered to have reached maturity by the age of ten or twelve; but there is nothing to say that the Chiss metabolic rate sits outside the range of known Human parameters, and it is not clear that their early maturity was a result of strictly genetic factors rather than cultural attitudes. Origins Unknown Regions An ice world that would make Hoth look positively tropic, Csilla is the homeworld of the blue-skinned race. Controlling most of what the rest of the galaxy considers the Unknown Regions, they keep probes and sentinels out to scan their space and store their information in a low-tech but very secure form. Not exactly xenophobic, they are wary of other species, but would welcome individuals into their society, if they showed the right credentials. On Csilla, the Chiss live under the ice to escape the bitter cold of the surface. Even so, heating is required and they use classically Chiss technology to do this as efficiently as possible. Most of the hallways and vast corridors through the ice are natural products of glacier flow. Accomplishments A few specific elements of Chiss technology were observed by outsiders. The Chiss, like many peoples in the Unknown Regions, did not use droids, and many Chiss ships were slaved to a network of hyperspace beacons rather than equipped with independent navicomputers; but it is important not to mistake departure from Galactic standards for backwardness. In spite of the lack of droids, many Chiss ships were highly automated—a cruiser more than two hundred meters long had an operational crew of less than thirty—and prior to the Clone Wars, their frontier pickets, which operated beyond the beacon network, had precise hyperdrives and navacomps capable of making lightspeed microjumps as tactical maneuvers during combat. In later decades, some Chiss devices, perhaps devised by scientists with access to Imperial technology, were highly advanced. Examples included chameleon-cloaked armor that enabled infantry to blend into the terrain, and long-range tracers that activated only in hyperspace, enabling its users to track targets across Galactic distances without transmissions being picked up by standard security scans. Similarly, it is easier to say that Chiss weapons technology was different from that of the Republic than to compare it qualitatively. For example in place of ion cannon, Chiss warships used missiles that deployed charged Conner nets up to a kilometer wide, which could disable and trap light freighters, entire formations of starfighters, or even incoming missile salvos. Perhaps the most distinctive known aspect of Chiss technology was their distinctive type of energy-weapon, the charric. This fired a lancing blue beam, sometimes described as a maser, which delivered thermal energy comparable to conventional blaster weapons coupled with a much greater kinetic punch, but lacked a stun-setting. Low-power shots instead administered disabling burns. The most common form of charric was a hand-held carbine, but pistols are also known, and larger versions of the weapon were carried by some starfighters, and included among the heavy weapons batteries of capital ships and bases. Combine Skills * Force Probability:1% * HP Bonus:0 * Race Multiplier:1.0 **Leadership: 1 **Space Command: 1 **Naval Tactics: 2 * Race Restrictions: ** none * Terrain Restrictions: ** Gas Giant ** Ocean ** Volcanic * NPC:9 to 28 HP See also Category:Races and species Category:Human races